Innovation: The 4 Cs

Or the few things I have learned over the past decade

about innovation in large companies

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Disclaimer- these are observations from my experience, no textbooks were harmed in the making of this

presentation- your mileage may vary

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A little about me….

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• Always wanted to find out how things work• ‘Is there a better way?’

• But what happens when you ask why or why not?• What does Immunology have to do with

Architecture anyway?

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“The future is not a place we will go: it is a place that you get to create.”

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1. Customer Focus2. Culture3. Consensus4. Commitment

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For most organizations innovation is not easy

But it is a fundamental way to create value

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What is Innovation?

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• Over 409M results• Maybe the question is not what but

how?

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Importance of Innovation to Senior Executives in the US

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Obstacles to generating a return on innovation

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1. Customer focus (Markets are conversations, but you

have to actively participate to hear the right words)

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Who is this?

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What do some companies notice about how their customers use their products?

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2. Culture

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Wouldn’t it be great if an organization would be able to continually innovate

and release products that were significantly better than its

competitors’ ?

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In reality what I’ve observed is that there is an inherent tension in

corporations between improving the current model and investigating new

models/new markets

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Experiment:Choice 1: Get a certain $1,000

Choice 2: Get $2,500 50% of the time, $0 the rest

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1.Firms and key decision makers are simply risk-averse

2.It's difficult to make assumptions about the unfamiliar

3.It's difficult to get a budget for new ideas

4.It's easy to kill an innovation project.

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3. Consensus (or “why wasn’t I consulted?”)

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In a totally aligned organization• Everyone feels like they contribute• Executives are comfortable with

innovation (because it is not just a ‘trophy’ but part of everyone's objectives)

• Other stakeholders are able to give feedback to the process willingly

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But in reality, need to involve stakeholders from all levels of the

organization• There are domain experts who might

feel threatened• There are executives who might

want credit• There are others who just want to be

heard

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4. Commitment

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So, what if we could design a firm that is committed and easily moves into

execution mode to drive from concept to prototype?

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Framework for evaluating new innovative opportunities

Low risk but many competitors (e.g.

Twitter)

Incremental

High risk/ high reward must be

balanced against opportunity cost of

other initiatives (e.g. iPod)

Disruptive

High risk but a defensive strategy

against other competitors (e.g

Hulu)

AugmentationMember

experience; requires reduced cost to serve for

success (e.g. Walmart)

Sustaining

Min

imal p

rod

uct

changes

Existing markets

Create new markets

Sig

nifi

cant

pro

du

ct c

hanges

Key consideration is developing a portfolio approach in order to mitigate risk in any one quadrant

Enhancement Breakthrough© Incite Design and Strategy

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New ways of approaching challenges

© Tim MacKay

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What I try with my innovation portfolio:1. Build in 1:1 customer feedback2. Help people in organization

understand need for change in existing model

3. Allow people to have voice heard 4. Portfolio approach (and prototyping)

to lessen perceived risk

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Thank you!

@jeffreyvefferlinkedin.com/in/jeffreyveffer

Jeffrey.veffer@incited.ca